Connor Goldson has insisted he has no regrets over his scathing comments on the Rangers squad after Steven Gerrard's exit from Ibrox.
The centre-back, 31, had delivered a brutally honest interview in the wake of Gerrard's departure as Rangers crashed out of the League Cup to Hibernian in 2021.
Goldson still recalls his words and the furious reaction to his comments suggesting Rangers had "lost hunger" and standards slipped after Gerrard departed to join Aston Villa.
“We know that the new manager was there today and you’d hope they would want to impress but after that performance, we need a change," Goldson said in a Premier Sports interview after the Hampden defeat. "We need a spark. I feel like, and I don’t want to say this but we have lost a bit of hunger.
"All of a sudden we are champions and we don’t need to work as hard which is wrong and I feel like that has crept in this season.
"We haven’t been good enough for the whole of this season so far. Hopefully, the new manager can come in and give us a spark.”
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In an interview with the Daily Record, Goldson has now opened up on his remarks and insisted he stands by his comments even if they weren't received in the manner he had hoped.
“I always remember doing an interview after we lost to Hibs in the League Cup semi-final when Steven left," said the now Aris Limassol defender.
“I got absolutely hammered for it at the time. But that was me saying that we had come back and weren’t as hungry as we were the year before when we knew everything was on the line.
“I could feel it in the pre-season. The running we’d done the year before ... suddenly people didn’t want to do that anymore. I felt after that semi-final was the right time to say it and maybe it didn’t come across well. But when I was at the club, I felt I was the person who had to say things like that.
“I took the stick for it but do I regret it? No, I don’t. We didn’t look as hungry or as fit as we’d been the year we won the league."